Available thesis topics

Students interested in topics related to usable security and privacy have the opportunity to do their master theses / bachelor theses / practical research project (Einzelpraktikum) at the CODE Research Institute for Cyber Defense (University of the Bundeswehr, Munich). More information on the research group on Usable Security and Privacy Group can be found on our website.

We offer a large variety of topics, including but not limited to:

• Tangible Security/Privacy Mechanisms (Contact: Sarah Delgado)
• Human Behavior and Physiology in Security Contexts (Contact: Felix Dietz)
• Social Engineering and Phishing (Contact: Verena Distler)
• Behavioral Biometrics (Contact: Lukas Mecke)
• Usable Security in Smart Homes (Contact: Sarah Prange)
• Novel Security Mechanisms based on Gaze (Contact: Yasmeen Abdrabou)
• Physiologicacl Security (Contact: Mariam Hassib)
• Security and Privacy in Augmented Reality (Contact: oliver.hein ät unibw.de)

If you are interested in working with us, please get in touch with the respective contact person.

Description

Electrodermal activity (EDA) denotes the measurement of continuous changes in the electrical conductance properties of the skin in response to sweat secretion by the sweat glands. EDA is autonomously modulated by sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity, a component of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which is involved in the control of involuntary bodily functions as well as cognitive and emotional states. Specifically, phasic EDA activity correlated with stress, cognitive load, and attention orienting. Therefore, measuring phasic EDA responses can give us information about the user's state.In this thesis project, we want to develop an adaptive system that modifies the visual complexity of the VR environment based on changes in phasic EDA. Specifically, we want to use new signal processing methodologies termed adaptive thresholding and gaussian filtering.The research consists of three main stages: (1) validation of the psychophysiological inference underpinning the adaptive system (2) implementation of a working VR prototype, and (3) an evaluation of the adaptive environment.

You will

• Perform a literature review
• Modify an existing VR environment
• Implement an preprocessing pipeline for phasic EDA detection
• Collect and analyze electroencephalographic (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA) and electrocardiography (ECG) data
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need

• Strong communication skills in English
• Good knowledge of Unity
• Good knowledge of Python libraries for scientific computing (e.g. Scipy, MNE).

References

• Fairclough, S. H. (2009). Fundamentals of physiological computing. Interacting with computers, 21(1-2), 133-145.
• Chiossi, F., Welsch, R., Villa, S., Chuang, L., & Mayer, S. (2022). Virtual Reality Adaptation Using Electrodermal Activity to Support the User Experience. Big Data and Cognitive Computing, 6(2), 55.
• Babaei, E., Tag, B., Dingler, T., & Velloso, E. (2021, May). A critique of electrodermal activity practices at chi. In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-14).
• Kleckner, I., Wormwood, J. B., Jones, R. M., Siegel, E., Culakova, E., Heathers, J., ... & Goodwin, M. (2021). Adaptive thresholding increases ability to detect changes in rate of skin conductance responses to psychologically arousing stimuli.

Description

Mixed reality (MR) systems refer to the entire broad spectrum that ranges from physical to virtual reality (VR). It includes instances that overlay virtual content on physical information, i.e., Augmented Reality (AR), and those that rely on physical content to increase the realism of virtual environments, i.e., Augmented Virtuality (AV). Such instances tend to be pre-defined for the blend of physical and virtual content. To what extent can MR systems rely on physiological inputs to infer user state and expectations and, in doing, adapt their visualization in response? Measurement sensors for eye and body motion, autonomic arousal (e.g., respiration, electrodermaland heart activity), and cortical activity (e.g., EEG, fNIRS) are widely used in psychological and neuroscience research to infer hidden user states, such as stress, overt/covert attention, working memory load, etc.However, it is unclear if such inferences can serve as useful real-time inputs in controlling the presentation parameters of MR environments.In this thesis project, we will investigate whether this blend can be adaptive to user states, which are inferred from physiological measurements derived from gaze behavior, peripheral physiology (e.g.., electrodermal activity (EDA); electrocardiography (ECG)), and cortical activity (i.e.., electroencephalography (EEG)). In other words, we will investigate the viability and usefulness of MR use scenarios that vary in their blend of virtual and physicalcontent according to user physiology. In particular, we will focus on understanding how physiological readings can passively determine the appropriate amount ofvisual information to present within an MR system.

You will

• Perform a literature review
• Modify an MR environment
• Adapt existing processing pipeline for EEG and EDA data
• Collect and analyze electroencephalographic (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA), and electrocardiography (ECG) data
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need

• Strong communication skills in English
• Good knowledge of Unity
• Good knowledge of Python libraries for scientific computing (e.g. Scipy, Neurokit)

References

• Lotte, F., Faller, J., Guger, C., Renard, Y., Pfurtscheller, G., Lecuyer, A., & Leeb, R. (2012). Combining BCI with virtual reality: towards new applications and improved BCI. In Towards practical brain-computer interfaces (pp. 197-220). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
• McGill, M., Boland, D., Murray-Smith, R., & Brewster, S. (2015, April). A dose of reality: Overcoming usability challenges in vr head-mounted displays. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2143-2152).
• Fairclough, S. H. (2009). Fundamentals of physiological computing. Interacting with computers, 21(1-2), 133-145.

Description

Biocybernetic adaptation is a form of physiological computing where real-time physiological data from the brain and the body can be used as an input to adapt the user interface. In this way, from the physiological data, we can infer the user’s state and design implicit interactions in VR to change the scene to support certain goals. This thesis aims the develop and evaluate an adaptive VR environment designed to maximize users' performance by exploiting changes in real-time electroencephalography (EEG) to adjust the level of visual complexity. The research consists of three main stages: (1) validation of the input EEG measures underpinning the loop; (2) implementation of a working VR prototype; and (3) an evaluation of the adaptive environment. Specifically, we aim to demonstrate the sensitivity of EEG power in the (frontal) theta and (parietal) alpha bands to adapt levels of visual complexity.

You will

• Perform a literature review
• Modify an existing VR environment
• Implement an online biocybernetic loop using EEG
• Collect and analyze EEG, EDA, and ECG data
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need

• Strong communication skills in English
• Good knowledge of Unity and/or C#
• Good knowledge of Python libraries for scientific computing (e.g. Scipy, MNE).

References

• Biocybernetics Loops and Physiological Computing
• Development of an Adaptive Game using EEG frequencies

Description

Research from cognitive science and computerized displays of simple stimuli has shown how perceptual load is a critical factor for modulating distraction. Perceptual load is the amount of information involved in processing task stimuli. According to Lavie (1995), our attentional resources are limited and mainly directed towards task-relevant goals, but we might be more prone to distractors if we have cognitive spare resources. Previous research showed that human faces have bigger distracting power than non-face objects. This project aims to assess the distracting potential distracting effect of human avatars in a social VR scenario. We aim to transfer of traditional paradigms that assess attention and distraction to immersive VR. Lastly, we adapt the target-distractor recognizability to evaluate if a physiologically-adaptive system that optimizes for perceptual load can support task performance. The research consists of three main stages: (1) validation of the psychophysiological inference underpinning the physiological loop (2) implementation of a working VR prototype, and (3) an evaluation of the adaptive environment.

You will

• Perform a literature review
• Modify an existing VR environment
• Implement an online biocybernetic loop using EEG and/or EDA
• Collect and analyze electroencephalography (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA), and electrocardiography (ECG) data
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need

• Strong communication skills in English
• Good knowledge of Unity and/or C#
• Good knowledge of Python libraries for scientific computing (e.g. Scipy, Neurokit, MNE).

References

• Perceptual Load of faces
• Perceptual load and task engagement
• Evaluating perceptual load in VR

Description

Physiological computing is a multidisciplinary research field in HCI wherein the interaction depends on measuring and responding to the user's physiological activity in real-time (Fairclough, 2009). Physiological computing allows for implicit interaction; by monitoring the physiological signals of the user, the computer can infer, e.g., if the task demands are either too challenging or easy, and either adapt the difficulty level or when users are getting distracted from the task, the system could give them a notification. Measuring the psychological state of the user creates intriguing possibilities for Social VR scenarios as we can either adapt the number of displayed avatars, their form or even their proxemic distance. This thesis aims the develop an adaptive Social VR environment designed to support users' performance when engaged in a cognitive task using a measure of physiological state (electrodermal activity: EDA) as input for adaptation. The research consists of three main stages: (1) validation of the psychophysiological inference underpinning the physiological loop (2) implementation of a working VR prototype, and (3) an evaluation of the adaptive environment.

You will

• Perform a literature review
• Modify an existing VR environment
• Implement an online biocybernetic loop using EDA
• Collect and analyze EEG, electrodermal activity (EDA) and electrocardiography (ECG) data
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need

• Strong communication skills in English
• Good knowledge of Unity
• Good knowledge of Python libraries for scientific computing (e.g. Scipy, Neurokit).

References

• Biocybernetics Loops and Physiological Computing
• Adapting task complexity of a Social VR environment based on skin conductance

Description

Prior work has explored transition visualizations between VR environments, or on specific interaction techniques for transferring objects from VR <-> AR views. However, there has been less attention on what are the more effective transitions across the reality-virtuality continuum. The focus of this work would be to (a) identify suitable MR transitions (b) create a mapping to common tasks where such transitions may be applicable (e.g., keyboard typing) (c) prototype different transitions, from R-->AR-->AV--VR, and vice versa: VR-->AV-->AR--R, and empirically investigating different parameters of each (d) run a user evaluation to assess perceived UX. comfort, sickness, etc. This project extends the work in Keep it simple? Evaluation of Transitions VR, by exploring MR transitions, instead of only across different VR environments. Evaluation metrics will involve both objective and subjective measures.

RQ1: What are the most effective methods for transitioning users across the reality-virtuality spectrum?

RQ2: How do these transition visualizations influence user experience, user physiological state, workload, and acceptance across tasks?

You will

• Perform a literature review
• Develop a environment
• Implement an preprocessing pipeline for phasic EDA detection
• Collect and analyze electroencephalographic (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA) and electrocardiography (ECG) data
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need

• Strong communication skills in English
• Good knowledge of Unity
• Good knowledge of Python libraries for scientific computing (e.g. Scipy, MNE).
• Knowledge of physiological sensing

References

• Nico Feld, Pauline Bimberg, Benjamin Weyers, and Daniel Zielasko. 2023. Keep it simple? Evaluation of Transitions in Virtual Reality. In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 196, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544549.3585811
• Dimitar Valkov and Steffen Flagge. 2017. Smooth immersion: the benefits of making the transition to virtual environments a continuous process. In Proceedings of the 5th Symposium on Spatial User Interaction (SUI '17). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 12-19. https://doi.org/10.1145/3131277.3132183
• Han, Jihae, Robbe Cools, and Adalberto L. Simeone. "The Body in Cross-Reality: A Framework for Selective Augmented Reality Visualisation of Virtual Objects." In XR@ ISS. 2020. https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2779/paper6.pdf
• Cools, R., Esteves, A., & Simeone, A. L. (2022, October). Blending spaces: Cross-reality interaction techniques for object transitions between distinct virtual and augmented realities. In 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) (pp. 528-537). IEEE.
• Pointecker, F., Friedl, J., Schwajda, D., Jetter, H.C. and Anthes, C., 2022, October. Bridging the gap across realities: Visual transitions between virtual and augmented reality. In 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) (pp. 827-836). IEEE.
• Uwe Gruenefeld, Jonas Auda, Florian Mathis, Stefan Schneegass, Mohamed Khamis, Jan Gugenheimer, and Sven Mayer. 2022. VRception: Rapid Prototyping of Cross-Reality Systems in Virtual Reality. In Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 611, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1145/3491102.3501821

Imagine Bob's office is connected via a (quantum-)encrypted connection to a server. How could Bob access this server from his home office if he does not have the necessary hardware at home? Well, he could get keys in his office and save them on his personal key-safe token. He could subsequently use the token at home and connect to the server.

The topic of offline distribution of cryptographic keys is interesting for researchers and practitioners alike, even outside the QKD context. Your thesis would evolve around the evaluation of already existing consumer devices that could be used to store and transport QKD-keys (or symmetric cryptographic keys in general).

Description

This projects purpose is to investigate in building a full body tracking system based on self-made trackers which are usable by the HTC VIVE and its Lighthouses. We want to compare the original HTC VIVE tracker with a varying amount of self-made trackers in order to use it for VR sport analysis.

Tasks

• Building a set of at least 10 tracker based on the enclosed literature
• Implementation of an application for testing purposes
• Compare the existing Tracker with the self-made tracker in terms of usability for VR sport analysis

Preferred qualification

• Experience in hardware and software prototyping
• Experience in C# programming for Unity 3D
• Interest in performing experiments
• Interest in performance enhancement in sports

Suggested Reading

• The HiveTrackers will serve as the foundation for the self-made trackers Tracker foundations
• This project can help to create suitable sensors Sensor foundations

Description

Development of a method in virtual reality to measure user behavior or user states (occupant monitoring) in the automotive domain.

Tasks

• Comprehensive survey of related work
• Define the concept
• Develop and implement your concept
• Conduct a user study to test and verify your concept
• Analysis, reflection and discussion of the outcomes

Requirements

• Independent scientific work and creative problem solving
• Able to organize and perform user studies and experiments
• Interest and experience in Software Development
• Interest in Psychology
• Experience with programming based on practical projects
• Bonus: Experience with Unreal Engine
• Bonus: Experience with Virtual Reality Development

Contact

Description

Car accidents are a significant concern, as they claim a high number of yearly fatalities. These accidents have been accounted to originate from recognition errors, including driver's inattention, internal and external distraction, and inadequate surveillance, causing decision errors. These errors can be attributed to a lack of situation awareness.Thus the development of a tool to measure people's situation awareness in VR could be very beneficial. It could be used to assess the user's situation awareness and compare different scenarios and interfaces and their respective effects.

Tasks

• Comprehensive survey of related work
• Define the concept
• Develop and implement your concept
• Conduct a user study to test and verify your concept
• Analysis, reflection and discussion of the outcomes

Requirements

• Independent scientific work and creative problem solving
• Able to organize and perform user studies and experiments
• Interest and experience in Software Development
• Interest in Psychology
• Experience with programming based on practical projects
• Bonus: Experience with Unreal Engine
• Bonus: Experience with Virtual Reality Development

Contact

Description

Smoking lead to long-term health issues, causes death and big costs in the economy and health system. Many people would like to stop smoking, but many attempts stay unsuccessful. That is why new ways of treating nicotine addiction are being sought. Virtual Reality (VR) has developed rapidly with many important technical advancements that is becoming more widely available and user-friendly. This opens new therapy possibilities.

Tasks

• Comprehensive survey of related work
• Define the concept
• Develop and implement your concept
• Conduct a user study to test and verify your concept
• Analysis, reflection and discussion of the outcomes

Requirements

• Independent scientific work and creative problem solving
• Able to organize and perform user studies and experiments
• Interest and experience in Software Development
• Interest in Psychology
• Experience with programming based on practical projects
• Bonus: Experience with Unreal Engine
• Bonus: Experience with Virtual Reality Development

Contact

Description

In this thesis project, we will investigate how an AI-system learns characteristics about the user through interaction patterns and user reactions. The final goal is a system in a specific domain, that adapts to the user based on their characteristics.

Tasks

• Comprehensive survey of related work in the research area of user profiling, interaction design and related psychology topics
• Find (based on an interesting usecase) one user characteristic, which is possible to detect based on interaction patterns or user reactions
• Develop and implement your concept
• Conduct a user study to test and verify your concept
• Analysis, reflection and discussion of the outcomes

Requirements

• Independent scientific work and creative problem solving
• Able to organize and perform user studies and experiments
• Interest and experience in Software Development
• Interest in Psychology
• Experience with programming based on practical projects

Contact

Facial expressions are a powerful form of communication humans use to convey a wide range of non-verbal cues. With the idea that robots will become an integral part of our daily interactions, we want to explore how different facial expressions of a humanoid robot affect human-robot interaction, as there currently needs to be a greater understanding of how humans perceive facial expressions in robots. Do users want robots to have human-like levels of expressiveness in collaborative tasks? What are essential states to be expressed by a robot with facial expressions? Can we perceive robots as curious, uncertain, or confident just by their facial expressions?

You will:

• Perform a literature review on the facial expressions of robots and other digital assistants
• Find out the content which is appropriate to be delivered by facial expression in the context of robot-learning and collaboration.
• Find at least three core concepts of how to create and design facial emotions
• Iteratively design different facial designs for a robot with various expressions
• Conduct a user study to investigate the effect of different facial expressions from robots to humans
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present them
• (Optional) Co-writing a research paper

You need:

• Strong communication skills in english
• Very good design skills
• (Optional) Prior experience in animation design
• Fundamental programming skills (python)

Curiosity is a fundamental human emotion that motivates us to explore and learn about the world around us. In recent years, there has been growing interest in the development of robots that can express curiosity. We envision that in the future, robots will help us with our daily chores and tasks. For this, robots should 1. want and be able to learn from humans, 2. communicate their intent to learn from humans, and 3. refer to related abstract contents or concrete objects. We envision that by expressing curiosity, interaction with such robots will be more engaging and rewarding for humans.

You will:

• Perform a literature review on how to express curiosity
• Design non-verbal gestures expressing curiosity for a humanoid robot
• Conduct a user study exploring the effect of these gestures in simulation environments, such as Rviz, fully VR or AR which combined physical robot arm/head and holographic [1].
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and presenting them to an audience
• (Optional) Co-writing a research paper

You need:

• Strong communication skills in english
• Strong programming skills (Python)
• (Optional but strongly recommended) Prior experience with ROS and Robots
• Motivated and interested in (movement/motion) design

References

• [1]Explainable Human-Robot Training and Cooperation with Augmented Reality.

Due to the advances in Artificial Intelligence technologies and Robotics, the field of Human-Robot Interaction is currently able to envision robots as constant collaboration partners for a magnitude of daily tasks. With robots being exposed to different environments and human needs, they need to be able to learn multiple different personalized tasks. Currently, this is mostly done with Robot Learning from Demonstration. However, due to the sheer amount of possible tasks, objects, and interactions, it is an impossible task to teach robots every subtask manually. Thus, we propose that enabling curiosity for robots; giving them an intrinsic desire to learn.

In this thesis, we will investigate the human aspect of this learning process. Teaching other humans new skills is a hard job, but humans clearly see a long-term benefit. Thus, humans are kind and supportive and therefore, also show a new skill multiple times. Will this be the same for training our domestic robot? For example, showing them how to cook? or simply how to open a drawer? Moreover, when giving the robot humanoid characters are humans more likely to put more effort into training their robot?

You will:

• Perform a literature review
• Identify possible design dimensions
• Develop a study apparatus using the dimensions
• Conduct an evaluation study
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and presenting them to an audience
• (Optional) Co-writing a research paper

You need:

• Strong communication skills in english
• Good knowledge of study design
• Good knowledge of data analysis
• Good knowledge of statistical evaluation
• (Optional) ROS skills

References

• Automatic Class Discovery and One-ShotInteractions for Acoustic Activity Recognition

The goal of this work is to get an overview of the vast variety of selection methods in smart environments, mixed reality, and VR. Through a literature review, the first step is to select a handful of selected methods. Therefore, in the next step, these interactions need to be implemented, to allow them to be compared in a lab study. Here, the aim is to compare these technologies with respect to measurements such as accuracy, speed, immersion, presence, and their effect on the embodiment.

You will:

• Perform a literature review
• Investigate different selection methods for VR focusing on e.g., controller vs. controller less, absolute vs. relative, feedback vs. no feedback
• Implement the study application
• Conduct the user study
• Study data analyse and propose design guidelines
• Record video up to 5min long explaining the thesis
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and presenting them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need:

• Strong communication skills in english
• Knowledge of human tracking techqniues (e.g., OptiTrack)
• Good knowledge of running studies
• Good knowledge of implementation most likely using Unity

References

• The Effect of Offset Correction and Cursor on Mid-Air Pointing in Real and Virtual Environments
• Modeling Distant Pointing for Compensating Systematic Displacements
• Up to the Finger Tip: The Effect of Avatars on Mid-Air Pointing Accuracy in Virtual Reality
• EyePointing: A Gaze-Based Selection Technique
• Improving Humans’ Ability to Interpret Deictic Gestures in Virtual Reality

Curiosity is a complex emotion that is essential for learning and exploration. In humans, curiosity is often measured through self-report questionnaires, such as the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory-II [1]. We currently want to create non-verbal and verbal communication methods with which robots can express curiosity.

However, there is no standardized questionnaire for measuring curiosity in robots and other assistive systems. In contrast to measuring one's own curiosity, we want to measure the perception of a digital system's curiosity.

You will:

• Perform a literature review on curiosity
• Perform a literature review on measuring how humans perceive properties in systems
• Develop a Systems-Curiosity-Scale (SCS) [2, 3]
• Perform an online survey to evaluate the SCS
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and presenting them to an audience
• (Optional) Co-writing a research paper

You need:

• Strong communication skills in english
• Strong motivation to work with literature
• Good knowledge of data processing

References

• [1]The Curiosity and Exploration Inventory-II: Development, Factor Structure, and Psychometrics.
• [2]Best practices for developing and validating scales for health, social, and behavioral research: a primer.
• [3]Creepy Technology: What Is It and How Do You Measure It?

Inhalte

Das bayerische Landesforschungsinstitut fortiss und IBM werden im Rahmen des IBM fortiss Center forAI das Thema Stress-Management für sicherheitskritische Anwendungen erforschen. Dafuür wird einKonzept entwickelt, um Stress bei Einsatzkräften der Feuerwehr zu überwachen und managen. Die Ideen werden prototypisch umgesetzt und präsentiert. Die Workshops und Gespräche während desPraktika können entweder in englischer oder deutscher Sprache gehalten werden.

Bewerbung

Beschreiben Sie kurz Ihre Motivation, relevante Fachkenntnisse, beispielsweise aus früheren Kursen,Jobs und anderen Projekten, die Ihre Fähigkeiten in einem oder mehreren der folgenden Bereichedemonstrieren: Programmierung, Benutzererfahrung, Nutzerstudien, Prototyping.
Senden Sie es anyuanting.liu ät fortiss.org

After an initial induction into existing marker technologies and conducive 3D printed objects, the goal is to design and build new a machine learning (ML) pipeline to detect conductive markers. Therefore the prototyping of physical markers is required, these will be used to record capacitive tangible footprints using the screen of a large capacitive screen as ML ground truth data. Based on that a model will be trained to distinguish and classify capacitive markers on touchscreens using a new ML classifier.

You will:

• Perform a literature review
• Building capactive marker
• Recoridng data for the training
• Train a ML model using TensorFlow
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and presenting them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need:

• Strong communication skills in english
• Good knowledge of data processing
• Good knowledge of machine learning

References

• Super-Resolution Capacitive Touchscreens
• 3D Hand Pose Estimation on Conventional Capacitive Touchscreens Submission

This project aims to use the ad hoc network functionality of iPhones to build a mesh network (especially if the provider network is down) within a manageable area). A mesh network is a network where each device can act as a router for other devices. This allows for a network that is very robust against failures of individual devices. The project will start with a literature study to find out how to build such a network. After that, the focus will be on the implementation of the network.

You will:

• Perform a literature review
• Implement a mesh network
• Conduct and evaluate experiments
• Design a user interface
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and presenting them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need:

• Strong communication skills in english and german
• Good knowledge of iOS development (Swift) =
• Good knowledge of networking

References

• [Pitch] Wireless Mesh Networking App
• [Video] Build device-to-device interactions with Network Framework
• [Sample Code] Building a custom peer-to-peer protocol

With the increasing proliferation of augmented reality glasses (e.g. Hololens), we are getting closer to the vision of truly mobile interaction in a digitally augmented physical world. As a consequence, a major part of the interaction with such devices will happen on the go. This establishes a need for interaction and visualization techniques that support the user in highly mobile situations. In this thesis, we will prototype and evaluate such interaction and visualization techniques to better support users while interacting on the go.

Tasks:

• Development of interaction concepts
• Prototypical implementation
• Design and conduct a user study

Requirements:

• Good programming skills (C#, Unity is a plus)

Mixed reality describes a continuum between physical reality and complete digitality (i.e., virtual reality). Both, reality and digitality, offer inherent advantages and disadvantages depending on the use case. For example, a higher degree of digitality causes a loss of connection to the real world and, on the other hand, a higher degree of reality decreases the immersiveness of the experience.In this thesis, we will investigate how the positive and negative factors of reality and digitality affect different usage scenarios. Furthermore, we want to investigate how users can move on this continuum, i.e., how they can control the amount of digitality and reality.

Tasks:

• Development of interaction concepts
• Prototypical implementation
• Design and conduct a user study

Requirements:

• Good programming skills (C#, Unity is a plus)

We, the Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q) at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia, offer you a unique position for your Master/Bachelor thesis in the areas of human-computer interaction and infotainment systems for motorbikes.

Join us on the journey of shaping the digital future and break the cycle with newest innovation technology approaches. We are a dedicated research team based in Brisbane in the Sunshine State of Australia and look for creative and out of the box thinking minds to join our team onshore.

We work on the most difficult challenges in the automotive industry where the only limits are our own imagination. Digitalization will be key to ensure a safe riding experience in the future. Come join our creative team to shape the future of motorbikes. All in?

What awaits you?

We will work with you to shape and scope your thesis project to align with any of the following activities:

• You will prepare real-world rider studies in various traffic scenarios and different interaction concepts.
• Evaluate various output media for a safe riding experience.
• Build a pretotype with an innovative mixed approach of augmented reality and voice speech. In addition, this unique placement provides
• the ability to present and discuss your solutions with industry experts at BMW Motorrad Munich on a higher level.
• the chance to discuss the newest trends in smart voice agents with other creative minds within industry and relevant stakeholders such as the state police in Queensland with an idea to learn from them and support shaping infotainment solutions for the future.

What should you bring along?

• Currently enrolled full time in an undergraduate or graduate program at an accredited college or university studying Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), or related fields like Computer Science Engineering, Software Engineering, Informatics, Data Science. Master’s degree preferred.
• Proven experience in software development, software engineering, prototyping or similar role.
• Experience in software development life cycles (SDLC).
• Experience with software design and development in a test-driven environment.
• Knowledge of coding languages (e.g.,C++, Java, JavaScript, Python) and platforms like Unity.
• An elevated mindset that is willing to think outside of the box and sees opportunity in every difficulty.
• Being able to work in a team is key for this position.

Challenge accepted? Apply now!

Earliest starting date: 01.05.2023
Duration: 6 - 12 months
Working hours: Full-time

The aim of this work is to get an overview of the possibilities of developing the representation of objects in three-dimensional space for smartwatches. As part of a literature review, the first step is to determine the technical feasibility and the current state of development. In the next step, these insights can be programmed and implemented for WatchOS

You will:

• Perform a literature search
• Examination of the various possibilities of 3D display in smartwatches
• Implementation of a 3D model for WatchOS
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present it to an audience

You need:

• Strong communication skills in German or English
• Good knowledge of WatchOS development (Swift)

Due to the increasing complexity of digital workplaces, workers often face interruptions, mental overload, and a The aim of this paper is to get an overview of the different digital feedback possibilities in sports. Within the scope of a literature research, the first step is to determine the current models and the current state of research. Then, a study will be conducted to test which models are best suited as feedback. The main focus will be on the psychological aspect regarding the effect on motivation and the perception of feedback.

You will:

• Perform a literature search
• Investigation of the different digital feedback options
• Carrying out a study
• Analyze the impact of the feedback on the users
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present it to an audience

You need:

• Strong communication skills in German or English
• Good knowledge of psychology (ideally related to sports)

Description

Human-AI interaction understanding is evolving comparatively slower than technical AI understanding. A particularly interesting issue is the perception of ownership over the creations made with AI support. How the ammount of effort, time, and iterations over a given outcome influence the user's sense of ownership?. In this thesis you will explore these correlations and contribute to the understanding of Human-AI collaboration.

You will

• Develop AI protoypes using LLMs and Difussion models
• Deploy your prototypes in a Museum where a significant ammount of people will try your app
• Collect data during the museum exhibition
• Analyze real-world data and report the findings

You need

• Good knowledge of Python
• Understanding the deployment of models from Huggingface
• Knowledge of how to develop User Interfaces

References

• Draxler, F., Werner, A., Lehmann, F., Hoppe, M., Schmidt, A., Buschek, D., & Welsch, R. (2023). The AI Ghostwriter Effect: Users Do Not Perceive Ownership of AI-Generated Text But Self-Declare as Authors. ArXiv, abs/2303.03283.

Description

A recent trend in human-computer interaction is augmenting human sensory capabilities, among them interoceptive awareness, or the knowledge of one's own organism. This can be helpfult from a enhanced health perspective but also for a human enhancement standpoint, given that having such information could help individuals optimize the inputs they provide to their bodies to increase physical/cognitive skills. Continuous Glucose Monitoring devices provide information about the individual's blood, which can potentially be used to track activities or reactions to food/medications/habits. In this thesis, you will explore the potential applications of this devices for enhancing human performance. Ultimately creating a wearable device that read's user physiological information via blood, and delivers feedback through haptic/auditory channels.

You will

• Perform a review of current literature
• Collect in-the-wild data from participants to create an base dataset
• Create an AI/ML model that can do inferences based on CGM data
• Create a prototype that provides feedback to the user based on the AI/ML inferences

You need

• Android Programming Skills
• Understanding of AI/ML techniques

References

• Steeven Villa, Jasmin Niess, Takuro Nakao, Jonathan Lazar, Albrecht Schmidt, and Tonja-Katrin Machulla. 2023. Understanding Perception of Human Augmentation: A Mixed-Method Study.
• Albrecht Schmidt Augmenting Human Intellect and Amplifying Perception and Cognition

Description

Current advancements in VR technology have enabled high-quality visual and auditory feedback, but achieving realistic touch sensations, specifically temperature, continues to be challenging. This thesis explores the integration of encountered-type haptics and Peltier temperature plates to enhance temperature perception in VR. Specifically, it investigates rendering varied temperatures in large-scale Virtual Reality using a single temperature-enabled end-effector.

You will

• Control a Robot from Unity using a plugin
• Control the temperature of peltier elements using arduino
• Attach the eeltier elements to the robot end-effector
• Run User-Studies to test your prototype
• Analyze the collected data

You need

• Good knowledge of Unity
• Willingness to learn hardware prototyping

References

• Steeven Villa and Sven Mayer. Cobity: Cobity: A Plug-And-Play Toolbox to Deliver Haptics in Virtual Reality
• Steeven Villa, Sven Mayer, Jess Hartcher-O'Brien, Albrecht Schmidt, and Tonja-Katrin Machulla. 2022. Extended Mid-air Ultrasound Haptics for Virtual Reality.
• V. R. Mercado, M. Marchal and A. Lécuyer, "“Haptics On-Demand”: A Survey on Encountered-Type Haptic Displays,"